A strong winter storm pounded the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Thursday with heavy snow blanketing the region and disrupting traffic, local media reported. Dozens of flights and some train services have been cancelled on Thursday as weather authorities warned of avalanches, strong winds and heavy snow in many parts of the island, Hokkaido Shimbun reported. Two people were injured in the storm on Wednesday, while the heavy snow caused damage to 23 houses and 120 greenhouses in Kamifurano, the paper said. The snowstorm also prompted the cancellation of 321 train services on Wednesday and a total of 80,000 households suffered power outages in the past two days, the report said. The island is expected to see up to 50 centimetres of snow by Thursday evening after more than 40 centimetres of snow was dumped in some locations on Wednesday, it said.